Gas-feed valve for vacuum-tubes.



D. MOP. MOORE.

GAS FEED VALVE FOR VACUUM TUBES APPLICATION FILED DBC,31, 1910.

1,035,894. Patented Aug. 20, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

IIVVENTOR DANEL M FAR LAN MOORE WITNESSES D. MGF. MOORE.

GAS FEED VALVE FOR VACUUM TUBES.

APPLICATION FILED 1150.31. 1910.

1,035,894, Patented Aug. 20, 1912.

3 SHBETS-SHEBT 2.

. l/VVENTOR DANEL M FARLAN MOORE D. MUF. MOORE.

GAS FEED VALVE FOR VACUUM TUBES.

APPLIGATION FILED DEC 31, 1010.

1 35,894, Patented Aug. 20,1912.

3 BHEBTS-SHEET 3.

WITNESSES l/VVEIVTOR DANH'ZL M FARLAN MOORE ATTORNE V5 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL MOFARLAN MOORE, O1? NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

GAS-FEED VALVE FOR VACUUM-TUBES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 20, 1912.

Application filed December 31, 1910. Serial No. 600,267.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL MOFARLAN Moonn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas- Feed Valves for Vacuum-Tubes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of vacuum tube lighting apparatus in which the vacuum is maintained at the desired degree by automatically feeding gas into it by means of a valve when the degree of vacuum changes so as to vary the resistance to the passage of the electric currents.

The object of the invention is to permit the apparatus to be exhausted and eonstructed complete at the factory and shipped like any ordinary article of merchandise without danger of impairment of the vacuum in transportation by admission of gas through the valve in case the apparatus should, during shipment, be turned on its side or otherwise displaced from its normal upright operating posit-ion.

The automatic gas feeding valve heretofore employed makes use of porous material at the inlet of the tube through which the gas is fed to the lighting tube, a mass of sealing liquid, such as mercury, in which the porous material is normally submerged so as to seal the valve against passage of the gas through the porous material, and proper means, such as a liquid displacing body for changing the level of the liquid to expose the porous material and allow the gas to feed through it when required.

In the previous construction of apparatus,

tilting of the apparatus in shipment accidentally or otherwise would allow liquid to flow away and unseal the vacuum and so that the apparatus would arrive at its destination with the vacuum vitiated and the apparatus useless until reexhausted. In my previous application for patent filed by me March 17th, 1910, Serial No. 549,970, I have shown how this difiiculty may be overcome by so constructing the gas feeding means that it is operable automatically to feed the gas in the normal position of the apparatus but that in any other position and while the apparatus is out of operation it will prevent feed of the gas to the tube.

My present invention is an improvement upon t e invention of my prior a plication and has for its object the simpli the same.

The invention consists in the features of construction more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a vacuum tube lighting apparatus embodying the invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section through the gas feeding portion thereof showing the same in vertical or normal position for automatic operation. Fig. 3 shows the same inclined or turned away from such position. Fig. 4 is a vertical section of a modification of the gas feeding portion. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the armature which operates the valve.

1 is the light giving vacuum tube of any form and 2 the electrodes thereof.

3 is the gas feed tube through which the gas is fed in regulated amounts as required to maintain the gaseous tension at its normal. The gas feed valve preferred is of the following construction.

4 is a plug of gas carbon or other suitable porous material such as hereto-fore employed in the art sealed in the inlet to the tube 3 from the valve chamber 5. In the chamber 5 is a body of mercury which closes the valve when standing at a level suflicient to submerge the plug 4. Said plug is pcrvious to the flow of gas in chamber 5, but impervious to the flow of the mercury.

6 is an armature working in the tube 5 forming the valve chamber and operated by the electromagnet- 7 The armature 6 or a downward extension 6 therefrom dips in the mercury to displace a portion thereof and normally cause the same to stand at a level such as to submerge the plug. The lifting of the armature by the magnet 7 withdraws the displacing portion of the armature in the liquid and causes the level thereof to fall so as to expose the plug and allow gas to feed through the plug until the resistance of the vacuum increases sufficiently to allow the armature to recede from the magnet and again seal the plug by the mercury.

In previous constructions of the ap aratus, if the apparatus be tilted on its side atany time, as in shipment, the mercury can flow away from the space in which it stands when the apparatus is in normal position for operation into the spaces above sufficiently to leave the tip of the plug 4 exposed so that there will be an uncontrolled fiow of the gas and the vacuum will become impaired. In the present instance, however, as will be seen from Fig. 3, the chamber 5 being closed in at its top as shown and restricted in size above the principal mercury containing por tion, the feed of gas to the tube when the apparatus is turned on its side or tilted will be prevented by the closure of the inlet to the gas feed tube by the body of mercury, and it is even possible and in fact is preferable to so form or proportion the spaces that throughout the turning of the' apparatus to an inverted osition fro-m normal and likewise in such inverted position, the plug will be sealed by the mercury.

Suitable stops on the bottom of the armature as shown prevent it from dropping against the plug.

9 is a plug also of gas carbon or other suitable material pervious to gas but impervious to the liquid in the chamber 5, and, closing a tube or nipple 8 let into the side of the chamber 5 below the level of the mercury. The gas for replenishing the gas in the vacuum tube is supplied through said nipple and plug and leaks into the gas space of the valve chamber as a bubble or bubbles rising through the-mercury and flowing from time to time as the gaseous tension in the valve chamber drops owing to escape of gas therefrom through the valve to the gas feed tube 3.

against when it is lifted by the exterior magnet. The armature 6 may have a central opening and ways in its sides and top converging in said opening, all as shown in Fig. 5, to facilitate the return of the mercury to normal position when the apparatus is set up after shipment, as well as to allow free access of gas to the tip .of the plug 4.

It will be understood that suitablemeans are provided for sustaining or holding the various parts of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 in the relative position shown, said means consisting of the usual framework and protective devices to secure the parts against breakage and displacement.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4, the

top of the valve chamber is sealed by a stopof porous material 14 like gas carbon let into the stopper 12. The gas reaches the upper end of, the plug 14 around and through the sub-divided core of the magnet. A plug 15 inserted above the core of the magnet cooperates with the stopper 12 to hold the core in place. In this figure the armature is shown as being partially within the magnet spool.

The arrangement shown in Fi 1 has the advantage that the valve portlon of the apparatus together with the lighting tube is readily rep magnet and its connections.

The various porous plugs may be bored out as shown to diminish the thickness and allow gas to flow with the desired freedom.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a vacuum tube apparatus, a gas feed tube, the inlet to which is provided with a porous plug, a liquid containing chamber containing liquid which in the intended positionof use of the apparatus is adapted to unseal the plug but in other positions will submerge and seal the plug against the pas sage of gas and means for changing the level of the liquid in the chamber in the intended position of use of the apparatus to control the flow of gas to the tube.

2. A gas feed valve for a vacuum tube apparatus having an inlet to the valve chamber pervious to gas butimpervious to liquid and an outlet pervious to gas but impervious to liquid, and means for chang- ;ing the level of the liquid to control the flow of tube. In the top of the valve chamber 5 is a I cushion 10 for the armature 6 to strikegas through theoutlet and to the Evalve operating by a change of level of the 'seahng liquid and provided with an outlet pervious to gas but impervious to liquid and an inlet opening int?) the valve chamber .be-

low the level of the liquid and also pervious to gas but imperviousto liquid.

4. In a vacuum tube-apparatus, a gas feed valve operating by changes ofv level in a sealing liquid and having its li uid containing valve chamber provided with liquid which in the intended position of use of the apparatus is adapted to control the flow of gas to the tube but in other positions will seal the outlet from the valve chamber to the tube as and for the purpose described.

5. In a vacuum tube apparatus, a gas feed valve having a liquid containing valve aceable without disturbing the chamber of lass closed in at its top and New York and State of New York this 17th provided Wit a gas outlet and a gas inlet day of October A. D. 1910.

both pervious to gas but impervious to liqq uid, the inlet being located at or near the DANIEL MCBVARLAN MOORE 5 bottom of the chamber so as to be continu- Witnesses:

ously submerged. IRENE LEFKoWrrz,

Signed at New York in the county of FRED S. BORDEN. 

